You deserve an internet that rewards you for your contributions.
You deserve PiperNet.

The Tech

Only Pied Piper has the necessary tools to build the internet of the future, today.

P2P Computer Communication Patent

Pied Piper's decentralized internet is built upon a patented foundation of peer-to-peer computer communication. This is the basis of the "internet we deserve."‎

Award-Winning Middle-Out Compression

Our revolutionary middle-out compression was the missing piece preventing Peter and Gavin from pursuing their original patent. After shattering the theoretical limit of compression at TechCrunch Disrupt, we’re now able to transport even the most complex data files across our network within seconds.‎

Distributed Storage

Middle-out reduces the size of your files so we can distribute, store, and reassemble them seamlessly across our network. Not to mention your data is fully encrypted and totally redundant across our storage nodes.‎

Join Our Developers

These developers are already experiencing the benefits of Pied Piper's decentralized functionality suite.

We’ve accumulated nearly all of the world’s knowledge online, but we forget how much of that data is personal. Today’s Web is dominated by Hooli and a handful of other tech companies that have built their fortunes tracking massive amounts of our data — photos, status updates, location check-ins, web cookies, and more.

So the question becomes: What do these tech companies do with all of this personal information? So as not to violate several NDAs I was forced to sign upon my exit from Hooli, I can only speak generally: It’s not pretty. They exploit your online activity and preferences for profit. They sell your data to advertisers. You become the product.

That’s why we at Pied Piper are building a decentralized internet — one which takes power from these megacorporations and gives it back to you, the netizens.

From Our Blog

Hello, readers! I apologize for not posting for a couple of months — we had quite a grim stretch here at Fort Piper. Our user growth had stalled and morale was low. But just as we were about to give up hope, Dinesh discovered an uptick in new users! Things seemed to be trending up,…

Company History

Pied Piper is Born

A Lawsuit Scares Suitors

The Platform

A New Internet

Before Pied Piper envisioned a new internet, it was a simple app to detect infringement of music copyrights – a side project of lowly Hooli employee Richard Hendricks. But buried within this consumer-facing service was something much more valuable: a world-beating compression algorithm.
Once others caught wind of the promise of his algorithm, Richard found himself in the middle of a bidding war between two of the Valley’s major players. Hooli CEO Gavin Belson pounced with a ten million dollar acquisition offer, while VC Peter Gregory offered a $200,000 seed round to start a new company. The stress of the decision took a physical toll on Richard, but in the end he picked Gregory and the power to see his tech through to its fullest potential.
With the backing of Gregory’s fund Raviga, Hendricks assembled his team: Dinesh Chugtai, Bertram Gilfoyle, and Jared Dunn, all working together out of Erlich Bachman’s incubator. The company’s first great test came at TechCrunch Disrupt. After a challenge from Hooli’s compression competitor Nucleus, Richard pulled an all-nighter to invent a new approach to compression: middle-out. In the finals of the competition, Richard’s middle-out algorithm surpassed the theoretical limit and achieved the highest Weissman score ever recorded. Pied Piper took first place at Disrupt.

Pied Piper’s moment of triumph didn’t last long. Their champion Peter Gregory passed away and Gavin Belson slapped the team with a massive lawsuit, rendering them damaged goods to all potential investors. Fortunately, Richard came across Russ Hanneman, the one man in the Valley who didn’t wince at impending litigation.
After a string of failed deals with energy drink Homicide and adult content producer Intersite, a condor egg live stream changed everything. The feed of the egg went viral when a camera technician fell forty feet into a ravine, and Pied Piper’s durability under the traffic proved the strength of the tech. The good news seemed to continue from there: Pied Piper defeated Gavin’s frivolous lawsuit, and Raviga’s new head VC Laurie Bream bought Hanneman out of Pied Piper.

But the celebration didn’t last long – Bream swiftly used her power to remove Richard from his position as CEO. Richard was repositioned to CTO, and was replaced by exec-for-hire “Action” Jack Barker. After an unsuccessful attempt to pivot Pied Piper to building data storage boxes, Barker too fell victim to Laurie’s axe, and Richard was restored to the CEO chair.

Under Richard’s leadership, the team launched the beta of their much-anticipated platform. However, the public response was one of confusion – they were ahead of their time. Bream fire-sold the company to Bachmanity, Erlich Bachman and Nelson Bighetti Jr.’s venture fund. And while the platform had floundered, the compression algorithm found a successful new home in a video chat app hacked by Dinesh.

Despite being in full control of Pied Piper for the first time since its inception, Richard found himself uninspired by what he was building. To Richard, PiperChat was a trivial application of his revolutionary middle-out compression algorithm. So Richard left Pied Piper to tackle a brave new venture: launching a decentralized internet.
PiperChat dissolved soon after and the rest of the team joined Richard’s new project. The next obstacle: securing the patent to the peer-to-peer network Richard dreamed of, which, unfortunately, belonged to Gavin Belson. Gavin and Richard embarked on an unlikely partnership, but it didn’t last long – Belson went to Tibet to find himself, and gave Richard full ownership of the patent.
With Gavin off in Tibet, Richard turned to customers for funding. Pied Piper landed a data storage deal with Fiduciated General Insurance and launched Space Saver, an app to maximize mobile storage that would help build out the Pied Piper network of devices. Space Saver made it onto the Hooli App Store’s Top 500 (utilities, sub-group mobile, sub-group storage), and FGI’s data was stored on a sufficient number of “devices.” This feat proved the viability of Richard’s new internet and earned Pied Piper funding from Bream-Hall to start building.
The journey to create a decentralized internet has just begun. Keep an eye on Jared Dunn’s blog for updates on the team’s groundbreaking project.

Pied Piper is Born

Before Pied Piper envisioned a new internet, it was a simple app to detect infringement of music copyrights – a side project of lowly Hooli employee Richard Hendricks. But buried within this consumer-facing service was something much more valuable: a world-beating compression algorithm.
Once others caught wind of the promise of his algorithm, Richard found himself in the middle of a bidding war between two of the Valley’s major players. Hooli CEO Gavin Belson pounced with a ten million dollar acquisition offer, while VC Peter Gregory offered a $200,000 seed round to start a new company. The stress of the decision took a physical toll on Richard, but in the end he picked Gregory and the power to see his tech through to its fullest potential.

Pied Piper is Born

With the backing of Gregory’s fund Raviga, Hendricks assembled his team: Dinesh Chugtai, Bertram Gilfoyle, and Jared Dunn, all working together out of Erlich Bachman’s incubator. The company’s first great test came at TechCrunch Disrupt. After a challenge from Hooli’s compression competitor Nucleus,Richard pulled an all-nighter to invent a new approach to compression: middle-out. In the finals of the competition, Richard’s middle-out algorithm surpassed the theoretical limit and achieved the highest Weissman score ever recorded. Pied Piper took first place at Disrupt.

A Lawsuit Scares Suitors

Pied Piper’s moment of triumph didn’t last long. Their champion Peter Gregory passed away and Gavin Belson slapped the team with a massive lawsuit, rendering them damaged goods to all potential investors. Fortunately, Richard came across Russ Hanneman, the one man in the Valley who didn’t wince at impending litigation.
After a string of failed deals with energy drink Homicide and adult content producer Intersite, a condor egg live stream changed everything. The feed of the egg went viral when a camera technician fell forty feet into a ravine, and Pied Piper’s durability under the traffic proved the strength of the strength of the tech. The good news seemed to continue from there: Pied Piper defeated Gavin’s frivolous lawsuit, and Raviga’s new head VC Laurie Bream bought Hanneman out of Pied Piper.

The Platform

But the celebration didn’t last long – Bream swiftly used her power to remove Richard from his position as CEO. Richard was repositioned to CTO, and was replaced by exec-for-hire “Action” Jack Barker. After an unsuccessful attempt to pivot Pied Piper to building data storage boxes, Barker too fell to Laurie’s axe, and Richard was restored to the CEO chair.
Under Richard’s leadership, the team launched the beta of their much-anticipated platform. However, the public response was one of confusion – they were ahead of their time. Bream fire-sold the company to Bachmanity, Erlich Bachman and Nelson Bighetti Jr.’s venture fund. And while the platform had floundered, the compression algorithm found a successful new home in a video chat app hacked by Dinesh.

A New Internet

Despite being in full control of Pied Piper for the first time since its inception, Richard found himself uninspired by what he was building. To Richard, PiperChat was a trivial application of his revolutionary middle-out compression algorithm. So Richard left Pied Piper to tackle a brave new venture: launching a decentralized internet.
PiperChat dissolved soon after and the rest of the team joined Richard’s new project. The next obstacle: securing the patent to the peer-to-peer network Richard dreamed of, which, unfortunately, belonged to Gavin Belson. Gavin and Richard embarked on an unlikely partnership, but it didn’t last long – Belson went to Tibet to find himself, and gave Richard full ownership of the patent.

A New Internet

With Gavin off in Tibet, Richard turned to customers for funding. Pied Piper landed a data storage deal with Fiduciated General Insurance and launched Space Saver, an app to maximize mobile storage that would help build out the Pied Piper network of devices. Space Saver made it onto the Hooli App Store’s Top 500 (utilities, sub-group mobile, sub-group storage), and FGI’s data was stored on a sufficient number of “devices.” This feat proved the viability of Richard’s new internet and earned Pied Piper funding from Bream-Hall to start building.
The journey to create a decentralized internet has just begun. Keep an eye on Jared Dunn’s blog for updates on the team’s groundbreaking project.

by Jared Dunn

We’ve accumulated nearly all of the world’s knowledge online, but we forget how much of that data is personal. Today’s Web is dominated by Hooli and a handful of other tech companies that have built their fortunes tracking massive amounts of our data — photos, status updates, location check-ins, web cookies, and more.

So the question becomes: What do these tech companies do with all of this personal information? So as not to violate several NDAs I was forced to sign upon my exit from Hooli, I can only speak generally: It’s not pretty. They exploit your online activity and preferences for profit. They sell your data to advertisers. You become the product.

That’s why we at Pied Piper are building a decentralized internet — one which takes power from these megacorporations and gives it back to you, the netizens.

Like any great revolution in history, the decentralized internet deserves a thundering manifesto that declaws the powers that be. However, my CEO Richard Hendricks observed that a lighter primer on the benefits of our network might be a better course of action. Ever so wise, Richard! So I reached into my literary toolbox and pulled out my third favorite figure of speech: the metaphor!

A Decentralized Library

Let’s pretend we’re in a town, and the local library is the Internet: a centralized repository of information. At first glance, it may seem an adequate institution, but there are still perils and flaws. Lost books, tracked lending patterns, a narrow view of the Young Adult genre’s broader appeal. It’s time for a change.

What if our town had a completely decentralized library system? That’s Pipernet! Let’s walk through how our game-changing decentralized network would solve each of the internet’s key problems and make the world a far better place.

Problem 1

Problem 2

Problem 3

To Summarize...

Our decentralized internet would allow users to anonymously store and exchange information without any intermediary. It would enable a safer, faster, more private, and completely autonomous online experience. Wondrous, isn’t it?

Coming Soon To A Device Near You!

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations are in order! At last you can rest easy knowing soon our new internet will launch for all to use. Until then, watch for weekly updates on my company blog.

Frequently Asked Questions

General

What is Pied Piper?

Pied Piper is a startup building the internet of the future. Today’s Web is riddled with corporate trappings, privacy violations, and security flaws which leave you, the netizen, vulnerable.

By rebuilding the Web from the infrastructure up, our new decentralized internet will create a faster, cheaper, safer and more private online experience.

Why did you name your company after a predatory flautist?

The name prevailed, as undesirable names often do.

PiedPiperCoin

When moon?

I can tell you with confidence that Richard Hendricks is our man to land us there due in no small part to his technical understanding of distributed systems, but also his childlike gusto for astronomy.

What is PiedPiperCoin?

PiedPiperCoin is the cryptocurrency powering the economy of Pied Piper’s decentralized internet. You can purchase PiedPiperCoin, earn it from our app publishers for using their services, or earn it by sharing your device’s storage, compute and networking resources.

For more on the benefits of cryptocurrencies, see our Chief Systems Architect Bertram Gilfoyle’s pitch deck on the subject.

What does a PiedPiperCoin look like?

Because PiedPiperCoin is in fact a digital currency and thus will never be printed, I request that you draw upon your wildest interpretation, dear inquirer!

I personally like to imagine PiedPiperCoin as a chit adorned with Richard Hendricks’ face the moment he realized we’d won TechCrunch Disrupt. The irony of decorating a currency with a moment so priceless is not soon lost on me!

Should my friends and I pump and dump this sh*tcoin?

First, allow me to say that PiedPiperCoin is certainly not a sh*tcoin. We are a legitimate, venture-backed LLC with good intentions and admirable aspirations, if I may say so. Not to mention, PiedPiperCoin already has a unique functionality suite, unlike other so-called “altcoins” out there.

Second, I speak on behalf of my fellow Pipers in saying we’d love for you to “pump” our PiedPiperCoin, but please do not follow it with a methodical “dump!” In fact, if your sole intention is to “dump,” we’d rather you not “pump” at all.

What can I do with PiedPiperCoin?

Are you a consumer with a connected computing device? Of course you are! You can use PiedPiperCoin to:

Are you a developer with the next great dog-walking, bird-watching, or parasailing app? No matter what you’re building, use PiedPiperCoin to improve your app’s performance by:

1. Making all your data more accessible
2. Running high performance compute at a fraction of the cost
3. Scaling and load balancing your app easily to meet growing demand

Or, you could convert your PiedPiperCoin into good ol’ fashioned fiat money — but why would you want to do that?

I don’t have traditional assets, but I’m definitely accredited. Can I still invest?

We believe you. Please call: 650.933.5102

Can I buy drugs with PPC? OR How do I report drug activity linked to PPC?

Our lawyer Pete Monahan will have more information for you on both matters.

Will buying PiedPiperCoin make me very rich?

We are legally unable to address this matter, but we can guarantee that any purchase of PiedPiperCoin will leave you rich with spirit knowing you are making the world a better place one distributed render at a time.

If you have a dad who loves being on the cutting-edge, believes in the power of technology, and trusts his child to spend his or her own savings wisely, then he most certainly won’t be upset with a hearty purchase of PiedPiperCoin!

Benefits of Decentralized Apps / Coins

What is decentralization and why should I care?

We thought you’d never ask! Check out this guide to all things decentralization and how our new internet will positively impact our planet.

Why should I use your decentralized apps over the ones already on my phone?

By building their apps specifically for Pied Piper’s decentralized internet, our developers are able to offer you incentives (like free PiedPiperCoin) just for using their services. For example, reviewing a restaurant, buying a movie ticket, or watching a piece of content could reward you.

That’s because our new internet views you as a loyal customer, not a product to sell to advertisers.

Besides earning PiedPiperCoin, you’ll want to use our decentralized apps because they add new functionality you never imagined possible. A couple issues we’ll help resolve are:

1. Proliferation of Fake News — In a decentralized news feed, you’ll be able to track an article all the way to its source in order to verify its credibility. For example, see a statistic you can’t believe? Now that stat will have a tamper-proof link to its source.
2. Identity Theft — Personal identifiers like your name, credit card information, and social security number will no longer be required to log into apps. Rather, you’ll use a randomly generated blockchain ID to identify yourself, thus leaving you protected from thieves trying to impersonate you online. For example, rather than logging into your mobile payment app with your name and credit card information (data which hackers can easily steal when a breach occurs), you’ll sign in with your anonymous ID which only you know.
3. Sending Money — At Pied Piper, we don’t believe you need to go through a bank just to pay your friend Gloria back for that fro-yo you shared. Rather, you’ll be able to send money faster than ever using an immutable public ledger known as the blockchain.

If you’re still not convinced, all of our decentralized apps are also faster, safer, and more reliable than the ones you’re currently using. Huzzah!

What are the benefits of an immutable public ledger?

We use a ledger to keep everyone’s devices in perfect harmony, but also to enable users to communicate and transact with others all over the world.

Because no one entity controls this ledger, there’s no barriers or firewalls between you and who you want to interact with.

Will Pied Piper developers be able to sell my data to advertisers?

Absolutely…not! (I tease.)

Our new internet is built upon the principle that netizens, not multinational conglomerates, should own all their data.

What does "owning" your own data even mean?

Owning your data means being in control of its distribution. On our new internet, you and you alone decide who has access to your personal information.

Will anybody be able to see my browsing history on Pied Piper’s decentralized internet (asking for a friend)?

Allow me to answer your question with a question! If you go bird-watching alone in a forest, will anybody know what birds you’ve seen? Unless it’s the forest in rear of Uncle Jerry’s house, the answer is of course no!

Today’s Web allows your ISPs and many others to look over your shoulder while you browse online, but on our internet, only you and your conscience will know what websites you visit.

The old Pied Piper “flute player” logo was referencing the fairy-tale character and in no way was meant to suggest a sexual act involving either the mouth or ear of the figure depicted. Apologies to any who were offended, and the logo has been changed to our current hat design by Mary Shibley that's clean, elegant and not without some danger.

Problem 1:

Single Points of Failure

Libraries are vulnerable to losing their collection because all of their books are contained at a single location. Say, for instance, that there was a fire, or a flood, or a vandal defaced John James Audubon’s masterpiece Birds of America by giving all the Warblers human genitalia. Even worse, if the vandal recruited bird haters from other neighborhoods and got ahold of all the copies of the book in existence, it could be lost crude doodles forever. It would be a tragedy on par with the destruction of the Library of Alexandria.

The Problem

Because Birds of America is centralized in one public location, it’s susceptible to permanent deletion. The same goes for content on the Internet — storing all your family photos on a single account in a cloud service? They could all be wiped away if someone hacked your account or corrupted the host servers.

The Solution

Our solution: In our decentralized library, we would duplicate and distribute multiple copies of Birds of America to your neighbors — if you need a copy, you would just go to your neighbor’s house. As our Pipernet town of mobile devices grows, so do the number of neighbors who might have a copy of your book. And the more potential copies there are available, the more secure the book is.

That’s what our new internet will allow you to do too: spread your personal files on devices across the world, so they’re completely safe from bad actors manipulating or deleting them.

Takeaways

All copies of your files in a well-known, hackable location = RISKY!

Files copied and distributed to multiple locations = SAFE!

Problem 2:

No Privacy

In order to check out books, you must have a library card — an ID that links back to your real world identity. That library card reveals all the books you’ve ever checked out, where you returned them, and whether they were returned on time.

The Problem

The tech titans collect data profiles on us too, and theirs are far more comprehensive. They amass thousands of personal data points by tracking our activities in both the online and physical worlds.

Users don’t own or control their own data, so it can be used against them. Take, for instance, Richard’s lawyer Pete Monahan, who had his probation revoked when the state retrieved his library records. Which was… probably a good idea. But for this metaphor’s purposes: bad that they can access that information!

On the web, our data profile is far more detailed, the laws around privacy even looser, and more freedoms are at stake. For example, what if Hooli sold your search data to an insurance company who then denied you coverage because you’ve HooliSearch-ed “kindest Palo Alto based Cardiologist” a few too many times?

The Solution

Replace library cards with anonymous identification cards which are impossible to connect to your real world identity. Instead of using a library card (linked to your name, address, etc.) to check out books, you would swipe a nondescript card (containing no personal details). Your activity would be tracked to keep the system stable, but your identity would not be siphoned and sold. I, for example, would no longer check out books as "Donald Dunn," but rather the nom de guerre "h3w0vbk37vpm."

That’s what our new internet will allow you to do too: use its apps and services without compromising your privacy.

Takeaways

Trading your identity and data for online services = RISKY!

Using services anonymously so nobody can target you = SAFE!

Problem 3:

Censorship and Manipulation

Because a town’s library is run by a small group of administrators, they could theoretically decide what books are available to its people. They could even decide to ban Birds of America, depriving young birders of Audubon’s elegant illustrations, pored over page by page under a government-issued blanket after lights out, giving you hope that even a slender-framed, shivering boy could grow to be as majestic as a Hooded Merganser.

The Problem

On the internet, multinational corporations can screen content, or even “adapt” their services to fit the local government’s requests. In both libraries and on the Web, we’re susceptible to data being censored or manipulated by intermediaries.

The Solution

A peer-to-peer lending system backed up by a fully public ledger, allowing you to send and receive books freely to anybody in the world without worrying about censorship or interference. Want to add Catcher in the Rye, Fahrenheit 451, or your controversial essay on Audubon’s coloring techniques? No problem, even if the town surrounded you with pitchforks to ban them, these vital texts would be available to share neighbor to neighbor, impossible to delete.

That’s what our new internet will allow you to do too: exchange messages and files directly with their intended receiver, disperse ideas and information free from threats of censorship.

Takeaways

Pushing all transactions through a central authority = OPPRESSIVE!

Establishing a peer to peer exchange system based on an immutable public ledger = FREE!